I purchased the excellent PCM2011 after playing the tour de france game on the xbox (and loved that!! Highly recommended if you want a different take on PCM2011)
Anyway, I started a new customer career. I have a reasonable knowledge of cycling and its tactics, so I went for a team with enough riders to field 3 teams if neccesary.
Team leaders , Cadel Evans, Brad Wiggins and Robert Gesink.
and I have several riders who are good climbers including Gadret, Rijano and more who are all in the low 70's. I have only got 3 sprinters, Gil, Appolina and Haedo (and not having much luck so far with sprints, I don't think I have the right kind of team to lead out)
Anyway, I obviously want my whole season to peak at the Tour de France. I have a couple of questions.
Firstly, is it feasable to race Wiggins, Evans and Gesink all at the tour de france? they are all classed as team leaders, are they going to get unhappy if they are both working for evans in the tour? I want to use them both as Wiggins will be very usefull in the TTT and can also climb well and Gesink to be a mountain henchman for Evans and also win the U23 jersey. Am i likely to make Wiggins and Gesink unhappy if they are placed as "free elements" in the team list for the tour.
My second question is this, is the Giro a good prep for the tour? or am I asking too much if I enter my tour de france team into the giro?
also, how does fatigue work? I have an idea that you need to keep them under 60 days, but the yellow bar of fatigue, do i need that to be at zero to race or can riders ride ok with a reasonable amount of fatigue? I guess what I am trying to say, is that doe the fatigue bar just have a season's worth in it and its unavoidable or is there a way to manage it better? Should I only pick riders with very little fatigue for the next race?
Got to say, I am loving this game. Brilliant fun and very challenging. I have had some success already. Evans won the tour of oz and also leads the Paris- Nice by 40 secs in front of Contador with a couple of stages left, the big mountain stage last should be a cracker..!
Firstly, is it feasable to race Wiggins, Evans and Gesink all at the tour de france?
I wouldn't do that, too many captains on the ship. Send Evans and Wiggins, use Gadret and Rujano as domestiques and try to get Gesink to the Giro or Vueta.
My second question is this, is the Giro a good prep for the tour? or am I asking too much if I enter my tour de france team into the giro?
Again a no. The time between Giro and TDF is too big, and the GC-contendors in the TDF have maybe too many racedays then. But then again, when you focus only on those two GT's (with a few racedays before GT) it's possible to win both with Evans.
also, how does fatigue work?
The fatigue bar (Assuming you mean the bar outside the race) will increase when the level of training is higher. And to get a higher fitness, you need a higher level of trainig. So it's normal to get a higher fatigue. It can only decrease by lowering the traininglevel, but can seldom go to zero. I would pick the riders (well, I always make a schedule who races where) with high fitness (over 90) and who's schedule it says to ride.
Thanks for the reply mate. Ok, I'll take Wiggins and Evans then. I'll try and finish top 10 in the giro with Gesink. Not sure I will have a strong team behind him for that one!
Its a tough game this isn't it? I am playing on medium/normal level I think. Breakaways are very hard and also sprints. I do love a challenge though.
So, what level of fitness should I have for my riders before a GT? I understand that their fitness will increase in the early stages due to the sprint finishes where they can coast in the peleton, is there a min level I should have them at so they are ready for the big mountain stages where the tours are decided?
I try to have about 80-85 at the start. 85 if there is a TTT on the first 4 stages, otherwise 80 is enough as the mountains are normally not in weak 1.
Top10 with Gesink is definitely possible, especially on normal.
I played with Dan Martin and also without big support on extreme and was really close to the podium two times and Gesink should clearly be the better GT rider.
Try to keep the training fatigue bar under 50% until the end of TdF. From about 40% of the fatigue max training fitness level starts to drop, but with the fatigue bar filled by 50% you should still have max 78 or 79 training fitness allowed, which after adding the race fitness should give you at least 96 fitness points on final TdF stages (most likely 77/78 training + 19/20 race fitness).
The best way to achieve it is to have level 6 training peak in the last one week of TdF, and for previous weeks use only the levels of training which are needed to achieve that level 6. This way you should have max allowed training fitness in TdF week 3 and your fatigue should stay low.
You can roughly estimate the fatigue during the manual edition of custom fitness program - click on "evaluate" button, which is next to "save" in low right corner.
Edited by Smoku on 08-09-2011 12:25
